Private School Column

Pope John Paul II will visit a classroom at a Roman Catholic school
in Los Angeles during his 10-day tour of the United States this
September.

Archbishop Roger M. Mahony has announced that the Pope will hold "an
informal exchange with students'' on Sept. 16 at one of seven
elementary schools within a four-mile radius of downtown Los
Angeles.

The visit is scheduled for the second day of the Pope's stay in Los
Angeles. The block of time was originally reserved for a meeting
between the Pope and President and Mrs. Reagan, but that event had to
be rescheduled.

On Sept. 12, the Pope will speak to Catholic educators at the
Louisiana Superdome in New Orleans.

A new study appears to confirm the researcher James S. Coleman's
controversial finding that black and Hispanic students in Catholic
schools tend to outperform their peers in public schools.

The latest findings are based on data from the National Assessment
of Educational Progress and "High School and Beyond,'' the U.S.
Education Department's longitudinal study of high-school students. Mr.
Coleman's work was also based on the department's study, which included
data on 1,900 black and Hispanic students in 94 public high schools and
2,050 students in 83 Catholic schools.

According to the new study, minority students who attended Catholic
schools took more academic courses and scored higher on reading tests
than did minority students in public schools. Valerie E. Lee, an
assistant professor of education at the University of Michigan, and
Anthony Bryk, an associate professor of education at the University of
Chicago, conducted the research.

Copies of the study are available from Ms. Lee, the School of
Education, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 48109.

Private-school enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment in
kindergarten through the 12th grade increased from 9.8 percent in 1984
to 10.9 percent in 1985, according to an "issue paper'' included in the
latest edition of "The Condition of Education,'' the U.S. Education
Department's annual statistical report.

Enrollment in private schools dropped during the 1970's, from 10.9
percent of total enrollment in 1970 to 10.1 percent in 1979. Copies of
the annual report are available for $13 each from the Superintendent of
Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20402. The
stock number is 065-000-00276-1.

Independent Sector, the country's largest coalition of nonprofit
organizations, is attempting to find out how the estimated $40.9
billion that Americans donated to religious groups last year is being
used.

Last month, the group began asking 4,300 congregations of 170
denominations to describe their finances, including education-related
spending. The survey is expected to provide information that is
unavailable to the Internal Revenue Service.

The Lilly Endowment and the Pew Charitable Trust are financing the
$200,000 study.--K.G.

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